Starting as a Mechanical Hunter-Chapter 423 - 171: Nightmare-level Task

"Patch up the building corner, patch up the building corner!"

In an office building, a dozen ’Player No.1’ were invading a small corporate system, the implant port at the temple of the Neural Editor inserted a data tube, the other end of the data tube connected to the corporate network, conducting a high-speed hack-in.

Meanwhile, other players were besieging the company’s Peacekeepers.

The Peacekeepers wore wireless agent jumpsuits, equipped with tactical gloves, and their weapon was an intelligent sniper rifle. Although they were few in number, their spear skill was incredibly precise, at least at an elite level 10 standard, and if a player was not careful, they could suffer fatal damage.

"Mortar, can you handle them, I mean, without collapsing this building."

A large male player with a stern face rushed in from behind. The clip on his gorilla-like arm was empty, and he snatched a ’Wild Division Four Types’ from another player, skillfully flicking and inserting it. The clip and plugin were all equipped, the plugin being a small exquisite item with a +8.6% critical strike rate.

Gunfire instantly rang out. Mortar ran and shot, moving quickly, with exaggerated accuracy, completely unlike the standard of an assault rifle. Each shot took out a camera, then a shot blew up the fireproof device, and rain began to drizzle down.

Seizing the moment when the rain fell, Mortar dashed directly toward the sniper point. The black bar filled just in time, reinforcing the ’Tactical Charge’ skill, adding 20% tactical evasion, making him like a hunting wolf.

With a fierce step on the wall, his metallic legs clanked loudly, and under a powerful counterforce, Mortar wrapped his arms around his head, protecting his vital areas, and his whole body crushed into the ’Peacekeeper,’ with the muzzle shooting into the chest gap while his other hand pulled out a dog leg blade, stabbing it into the neural connection line in the throat.

This level 23 Peacekeeper elite was taken down just like that.

With this tactical position lost, the players quickly cleared out the other Peacekeepers.

"Well done, Mortar, you’re quite fierce, aren’t you afraid of getting headshotted?" a player praised.

"For this kind of special Peacekeeper, the Perception module is external. Once there’s a sudden change in the external environment, it halts for a second or two, and if you seize those seconds, you can deal with it."

Mortar replied expressionlessly.

With the Peacekeepers gone, this group of players faced no more obstacles, binding the corporate employees at their desks one by one and gathering their spoils.

Dozens of Fine-level cyber bodies, four large boxes of weapons and ammunition, and a dozen low-level weapon blueprints.

"Cap, how do we handle these civilians?"

"How about killing them for experience?"

"Hey! Killing all the civilian NPCs—do you have no humanity?"

"Damn it, haven’t you seen the scenes on the street? Our peers have already started killing at random. If they can do it, why can’t we?"

Two players, their black bars filled, were about to start a brawl.

The lead player thought for a moment, then suddenly grinned: "Release them."

"Release them?"

The corporate employees suddenly showed a glimmer of hope.

"But on one condition, help us hack into this city’s corporate network."

"Yeah, we’re here to complete a Nightmare-level Task, we would have forgotten if you hadn’t mentioned it."

"By the way, what was the task content again?"

"Seems like to cause as much destruction as possible."

"Will you do it or not? If you do, we’ll let you go!"

A player pointed a gun at a civilian NPC, speaking viciously.

Unexpectedly, the NPC’s eyes flickered several times, calmly saying, "Invading corporate networks violates the laws of Mechanical City, articles 5, 11, 61. We are law-abiding citizens and will never do anything illegal."

"Yes, we will never yield to evil."

"Justice is on our side."

A player was stunned for a moment, then suddenly flew into a rage, kicking an NPC to the ground, cursing loudly:

"Screw you, capitalist dogs! Your whole bodies are bound by the company, your brains have permanent employment contracts with the Corporate Will, working 30 hours in a 30-hour day, even your newborn children are company assets. And you still talk about justice? Tell me, where is the justice in that?"

"Justice is Nightless City’s law, Corporate Will, Moral Chip—"

’Bang—’

The gunshot silenced this NPC, and the grimacing player pointed the muzzle at another female employee.

"I’ll give you one more chance."

"Corporate rules are justice. For the company, I’m willing to marry, have children, enhance my skills, and contribute to the world."

The female employee said, trembling all over.

The gunshot rang out again, only this time, the bullet hit the ground as the leading player held down the gun barrel, the black and white bars on his panel scuttling wildly.

The lead player suddenly remembered something and turned to the Prosthetic Doctor among the players: "By the way, Black Death, do you still have ’Laughing Bat’ left?"

Black Death paused for a moment and said, "Yes, didn’t you say to keep it in case it broke, so it could be installed again."

"What do you think about replacing their Moral Chip with Laughing Bat?" The lead player chuckled: "Don’t you want to find out what will happen if these NPCs have our chip installed?"

"It’s got potential!"

"Are we recruiting NPCs as companions? Boss, you’re wicked, but I like it!"

"These NPCs won’t break, right?"

Clearly, this troublemaking action was met with unanimous approval.

The player named Black Death didn’t hesitate, grabbing a wrench to forcibly pry open the Network Access Chamber, operating as if changing a phone card.

With a ’ding’ sound, the lead player glanced at the panel, letting out a slight sound of surprise.

"A side quest has actually been triggered."

[Side Quest: Laughter Infected]

Mission Briefing: Darkness has given me black teeth, yet I use them to smile. Since we’re born in this mad world, why not make it even madder.

Difficulty: Unknown

Mission Content: Infect with the ’Laughing Bat’ virus, inject it into every NPC with an implanted moral chip. The more implants, the more smiles in this world.

Mission Reward: Basic reward: Experience +100/person, Mechanical Hunter Reputation +1/person. The more Laughter Infected implanted, the higher the task completion rate.

"Laughter Infected, what is that? Chip 2.0 version? Where to collect it?" A player asked confusedly.

"Boss, some strange code has come in. The code structure is similar to the chip structure."

"Oh, so that’s how it is, got it!" The lead player looked at Mortar with a smile, a former member of the Evil Jade Clan.

"Hey, Old Cannon, got the side quest, see? I told you hanging with us is the right move."

Mortar snorted coldly, saying nothing.

...

Meanwhile, on the other side, a group of players is in an ’Apollo’ sports car, stolen from who knows where, racing wildly down the electromagnetic highway.

Shooting randomly while speeding, occasionally hitting a passerby, who falls dead.

"Twenty-third person!"

"Nicely done!"

"Damn, another point of task completion, awesome!"

These players wore metallic Laughing Bat masks, paired with multicolored weird suits — a familiar sight.

Humans stripped of bestiality won’t protect themselves.

With the Mechanical Main Brain in ’sleep mode’, it’s prime time for certain players to farm extensively.

Yet the next moment, a black shadow flashed across the sky, and a strong metallic ’screech’ came from the car roof.

The gale swept from the rooftop, and the next moment, two players disappeared into the darkness.

"Damn, what the hell?"

"Is it a monster? Come on! Ram it!"

The ’Jokers’ shouted, eyes gleaming red.

The black shadow flashed again, and two more players vanished.

This time, they saw clearly, the shadow was a great eagle, with what seemed like two people riding on it.

"Who is it?"

"Seems like players, the system panel says so."

"Why would players attack us? We’re on the same side!"

The black shadow swooped down again, and this time, the ’Jokers’ chose to retaliate, firing bullets crazily into the sky. Meanwhile, a figure leapt down, using gorilla arms + Intermediate Mechanical Skill, Big Muscle Dominator’s hands bam down like hammers on the car hood, sending the whole car airborne, spinning a dozen times before exploding upon hitting the ground.

Amidst the flames and explosion, the Joker players were almost wiped out, leaving only one ’Joker’ pinned under the car, snarling:

"Ignoring the juicy NPCs, why target us? Are you nuts?"

"This city is sick, you are sick, and we are just people following ideals."

"When rules are no longer a weapon to curb evil, they become shackles, letting villains go rampant."

Plane sat on the great eagle, looking oddly at Big Muscle Dominator reciting the embarrassing lines earnestly, paused, and said:

"I say, are you too deep into character?"

"No, I’m just executing justice!"

"Oh, looks like your white bar is full again."

Plane clicked his tongue, "Fine, let’s get on the bird and hunt down the next Joker."

Big Muscle Dominator ’huffed’ and ’puffed’ as he climbed up, fortunately, the 30-level mutant great eagle’s carrying capacity is no less than that of a small flying device, otherwise, carrying almost three hundred pounds would be tough.

Big Muscle Dominator was silent for a while, then said, "Why are you acting with me, this PvP yields no gains."

"Why not gains?" Plane looked at him puzzled, "Killing these players increases task completion rapidly."

...

The late-night battle continues, the Illusionary Union is still working overtime. On the fine-grained map of Nightless City, many red dots appeared, each red dot is a location of a moral chip.

Centered on the red dots, ripples emerged.

This is the special ability of the fourth-generation moral chip, network mode.

Soon, small data nodes began to form, computational power was generated.

In reality, masses of white light started to form, appearing in buildings, data centers, enterprise databases.

Ordinary people in Nightless City still ’operate’ in normal mode, yet their noses started bleeding, eyes tearing, brain exuding white fluid.

At the same time, Gao Gong also received a task, a system-issued, Nightmare-level individual task.